


Sweet and Easy

by BEbe7



Series: The Highlight [1]
Category: IZONE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Awkwardness, F/F, First Meetings, Gen, alcohol mention, no underage drinking occurs, the joyuriz are a band
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BEbe7/pseuds/BEbe7
Summary: The JoYuriz are steady on the local scene and the day they meet a fresh act is the day Yuri considers she needs a new friend.
Relationships: Jo Yuri/Kim Minju
Series: The Highlight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099481
Kudos: 10





	Sweet and Easy

**Author's Note:**

> if you think you have read this before it is because you have. this fic was actually the catalyst for a big realisation of mine but these days i have decided to inflict my bad writing on the world

The JoYuriz had a good thing going on. Somehow Yena had charmed (or annoyed in the words of anyone other than Yena) a promoter working at The Highlight into keeping them on the roster of local support bands. Honestly they were all a bit young but the air souring with spilled Red Stripe and the sweat of an anticipating crowd grew to become the facets of a victorious night for Yuri. 

Yuri could never sleep properly the night after playing a gig. It might have been the ringing in her ears as her head played an endless loop of feedback from the monitors which screamed every note The JoYuriz played at her during their half hour set. Or it could have been the lightheaded feeling of escaping the densely stifling air of the club and being overloaded with the fresh cool of the night air outside. Or it could have been the lights creaking on their rig above the crowd and tipping into Yuri's eyes at the sort of dazzling angle which allowed her to believe this was the glittering heights of her rock star dreams. 

Rather than going home right after a show The JoYuriz would head to the chicken restaurant across the street from The Highlight. 

"We need more protein," Yena would assert after the three of them managed to do their own roadie duties and sign out of the venue. If they got paid for their set, Yena would make eyes at the club promoter and ask her to join them. Hyewon could wrinkle her nose all she wanted at Yena with her fringe pasted down to her forehead and her eyeliner smudged around her eyes but it always turned out the same way: Hyewon would say she needed to stay until the end of the show but would end up tagging along with The JoYuriz before the headliner even stepped out of the green room. 

Hyewon was just in the process of her false rejection to the invitation in the loading bay at the back of the venue when they were discovered. 

"I'm still here," Hyewon squeaked. Eunbi frowned at Hyewon, perhaps in the way only a supervisor could, before shaking her head and stepping closer to Chaewon. 

Eunbi did that a lot, moving closer to Chaewon, and maybe it was because they were childhood friends or maybe it was because Yuri and Yena had annoyed themselves out of Eunbi’s good graces back when Eunbi was playing bass for some mediocre local band with a stupid name. Regardless of the reason, Eunbi spoke to Chaewon when it came to the important matters of the world. 

"If you're going to ditch now you should at least be friendly with the other support act. She's not from around here and she didn't even ask for a rider."

"We didn't get a rider either," Yena pointed out. It wasn't a great help to her case that Hyewon nodded in agreement. 

"Do you think you deserve your cut of the ticket sales when you played to maybe ten losers who got here early and were already bladdered when they arrived?" Eunbi asked, the words were clipped sharp and Yuri suddenly didn't want to butt in to defend The JoYuriz' right to have drinks and snacks provided by The Highlight. Eunbi turned back to Chaewon. "That Minjoo kid isn't from around here. She's all on her own too. She's too young for me to want to let her leave on her own."

"You've let me leave on my own after midnight," Yuri said. 

Eunbi didn't react. Chaewon sparkled a smile at Eunbi. "We can take her home."

Relief whooshed out of Eunbi with a smile as dazzling as Chaewon’s before she instructed them all to wait. They stood around in the fresh chill of the evening as that was preferable to the van Yena inherited from her brother. 

Yuri once left a box of JoYuriz official merchandise in the van and they had to cut their losses when every single T-shirt reeked of mouldy cheese by the time of their next show. 

Eunbi could worry all she wanted about this other support act, but anyone with a brain would want to be as far from Yena's van as possible. Hyewon likely only hung around because she was desperate to be fed. Yuri and Chaewon had no other options and were locked in by contracts of blood that Yena had them ceremoniously perform in their old practice space, sweet smoke cloying each breath before all the infernos of incense set off the fire alarm and the band was promptly evicted. 

Yuri couldn't imagine the poor soul who would be getting into the back of the van with them, if only to cross the road to the chicken restaurant, but she tried to harden her heart and convince herself that suffocating on the stench was preferable to expiring in any other way 

The JoYuriz were showing Hyewon a preview of the entrance they'd be trialing at their next show when Eunbi returned. She muttered to herself something that didn't sound particularly PG for someone concerned about poor innocent kids before she shoved a startled array of limbs out of the back door and shut the kid out of the venue with a slam which reverberated around the underground carpark for way too long. 

"Oh!" Yena exclaimed as she flipped her eyelids the right way out. She pointed at the newcomer who was failing to hide behind their guitar case on account of it being strapped to their back. 

The official line was that The JoYuriz were staunch supporters of the local music scene. Their social media accounts made a point of following local performers and clueing their alleged fans into the other talent around who were playing shows when The JoYuriz weren't. But if Yuri was honest she didn't have time to pay all that much attention. Yena somehow convinced Hyewon to look after their online accounts and could be considered their de facto manager at this point. Without Hyewon The JoYuriz would have no online presence and would be outed as a near antisocial group. 

But Yuri wished things were different when she saw the trembling uncertainty in the face of the person Eunbi had dumped on them. Yuri had bumped into this girl and thought nothing of passing her after seeing the backstage pass sticker pasted onto her denim shorts. Yuri felt bad for assuming this girl was the hanger-on of another of the groups but it isn’t like anybody else here knew her thoughts. Either way Yuri needed to make up for it. 

“I’m Jo Yuri,” Yuri said after pushing the noisy mess that Yena was out of the way. “What’s your name?”

“I thought you were all Jo Yuri,” the girl said. She adjusted her guitar strap and looked at The JoYuriz and Hyewon. “Maybe not all of you.”

Yuri laughed. She couldn’t help it even though it wasn’t really funny at this point. It began as a joke back when they all kept bumping into each other at local shows and someone suggested they should try getting together so nobody had to worry about mixing them all up. They tried it and it all worked out. Yena played the drums and Chaewon sang most of the songs but it was Yuri’s name and Yuri’s songs and the name made it sound like it was her group. But she wanted to live up to a reputation like that if it really was what this girl thought. 

But Yuri wasn’t half that cool. 

Chaewon was an expert at rediverting attention. She approached the girl with the calming ease. Maybe it was the pink blush of her hair fluttering over her shoulders as her motions stirred up a breeze, or maybe it was the fact that Chaewon conjured uncanny memories of romances never experienced, either way Chaewon was first love incarnate (not that Yuri was speaking from personal experience). Maybe she actually wasn’t the best person to approach this new girl. 

“I’m Chaewon. My bandmates here are Yena and Yuri. Hyewon is at the back but don’t worry, it isn’t her van. You’ll have to mind the smell. I’m sorry, Eunbi didn’t tell us your name and we were only a last-minute addition to the lineup so we didn’t catch the names of the other support acts.”

Chaewon was a perfect diplomat. Yuri was convinced enough. She wondered whether this girl was convinced as easily. 

“Kim Minjoo, eighteen years old. I play piano and guitar and I played one of my own songs in public for the first time today.”

It was a very thorough introduction. Yuri wished she could be as informative. But she had the band to think about and they weren’t nearly so accommodating, not right after a show. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Kim Minjoo,” Yena said. She clapped Minjoo on the shoulder hard enough to make her stagger a few steps. “Let’s get in the van. We’ve got a restaurant to run out of business.”

Minjoo reacted quite well for someone who had never met The JoYuriz before. She managed to improvise a seat in the van and survive whatever the smell was for the three minute ordeal that driving across the road and parking was. Perhaps it was Chaewon’s influence but Minjoo was even trusting enough to leave her guitar in the van when they all escaped. 

Yuri hoped the guitar case was impervious to smells or else Minjoo would be remembering this night for too long for the wrong reasons. 

In the restaurant it was Yena who all but pushed everyone into their seats (Hyewon in the seat facing the counter so she could see when their food was ready, Chaewon facing the wall so anyone coming into the restaurant wouldn’t see her face and be compelled to confess their undying love for her, and Yuri and Minjoo opposite Chaewon and sharing a slice of table which seemed criminally small). The scent of oil greeted Yuri out of the van and her stomach had been rumbling ever since. She could barely pay attention to the conversation (or quiz) led by Chaewon but it was a problem Hyewon was also suffering from. 

Yuri had done enough listening. They had already established that Minjoo was eighteen (like Yuri) and played piano and guitar (also like Yuri). Just in the ride across the road they learnt Minjoo could speak english and she had written a wealth of songs she wasn’t ready to let the world hear. She said other things too but Yuri wasn’t listening that hard. She was doing her own research into Minjoo and inspecting her face closely just in case. She was very pretty and Yuri wanted to find out why that was the case. 

“Hey, I know you!”

Yuri was startled out of her scrutiny by a slurred voice which jolted her to attention. Unfortunately it was not Yena, delirious with hunger, bringing over their chicken. Instead it was an inebriated man struggling to free himself from the grasp of a long-suffering friend. The man managed to drag his friend over to the table and he smiled down at everyone and opened his jacket wide enough to show his limited edition JoYuriz T-shirt (which was only limited edition due to having to dispose of the rest of that run of T-shirts which were ruined in Yena's van). He was a fan. He frowned at Hyewon and Minjoo though. 

“You’re not JoYuriz. Where is the other one? Did you break up and replace her? You all looked fine on stage.”

“No, Yena is at the counter,” Hyewon offered for some absurd reason. Yuri had never seen her directly engage with a man before. It was worrying to see it happen at a time like this. 

“So you didn’t get rid of her?”

“No, she’s still around. She drove us here.”

“I thought so,” The man clapped. “I saw the van and hoped it really was yours!”

Yuri wouldn't have been surprised if this guy said the van's stench had slapped him silly the second he arrived on the car park. It was a good enough reason for why Yuri felt herself losing brain cells. But then she felt a few more brain cells arrest and expire when Minjoo caught her eye and smiled like they were in on the same joke. An impossibility but Yuri felt oddly warmed by it all the same. 

Yuri was forgetting herself and where they were. 

“It was nice meeting you,” Chaewon said helpfully. It probably would have worked had the man not been mind-bogglingly drunk. Instead he continued to linger despite the cautious guidance from his friend. 

“We only heard that you’d be the support act for tonight like an hour before the show. There was somewhere else we were meant to be but you guys killed it tonight. When you have a headline gig at The Highlight I will force all my friends to come. I tried to convert some of the fans at the show tonight but nobody listened to me.”

Yuri can’t count herself surprised. If some handsome drunk guy was desperately trying to convince her to give a trio of random girls a chance she’d vow to give them a wide berth too. But this was her own band at stake and they were probably going to lose prospective fans because of their heavy-handed existing fans. 

"Make sure your friends all pay full price," Yuri said. 

"I promise, Jo Yuri," the fan said sombrely. He looked at Minjoo and added, "You were good too. I can't remember your name or your songs but I liked your set as much as I like The JoYuriz and they're my favourite band."

Minjoo thanked the fan and watched him follow his friend over to the counter as he pondered the possibility of getting his T-shirt signed by The JoYuriz themselves. 

"He's alright," Hyewon said gently. "I recognise him. He comes to every show. He was at the very first show The JoYuriz played."

"Wow, you have fans who are that dedicated?" Minjoo asked, wide-eyed. 

"I wouldn't say that," Yuri said quickly. "People say things all the time just to be nice."

"I want to be someone's favourite singer one day," Minjoo said wistfully. It was only then that Yuri heard what her reply might have sounded like. She didn't get the chance to redeem herself when Yena and the fan screamed some sort of greeting at each other. Hyewon looked close to having a heart attack and Chaewon patted her arm gently. 

"You probably can be," Chaewon said to Minjoo. "Even if it is just one person who supports you, playing music is fun. It just depends on the crowd. People will want to get to know you gradually here too. Eunbi said it was your first show at The Highlight but where do you normally play?" 

Minjoo hesitated, smiled down at the table and sighed through a laugh before admitting, "I have never performed for people like that before. I played at school and for my family but never at a music venue."

"And you came alone?" Yuri squawked despite herself. "How are you that brave?" 

Minjoo looked thoughtful. "I just had to do it. If not now then never. That's what I decided. And then I messaged tonnes of promoters for weeks before The Highlight said yes and slotted me in just before you guys." She smiled directly at Yuri before talking to the tabletop once more. "I've heard of The JoYuriz before but it still seems surreal that you're really girls like me and you have fans and merch and a van."

"The van stinks." Yena interrupted Minjoo’s romanticism sharply before plonking the towering tray of chicken down on the table. And then a second tray of chicken was brought over by the fan from before. The fanse friend brought over the tray of drinks. 

"Will you really dedicate a song to me at your next show?" The fan asked. 

"Of course we will, Hyunjae."

"It's Jaehyun. But cool. Thank you."

"I think we've bothered The JoYuriz and their friends enough," The fan's friend said as he steered away the man who seemed to be genuinely asking if he should change his name to Hyunjae. 

"Eat up, ladies," Yena said grandly. "Either Eunbi made a mistake or we actually recouped more than the cost of the petrol to get here."

"No matter what, Eunbi can't take the money back if we've eaten it," Hyewon added sagely. That worried Yuri a bit. Surely Hyewon, who worked at The Highlight, would know whether enough tickets were sold for The JoYuriz to actually get paid. Yuri could only guess that Eunbi had made a mistake and Hyewon was speaking her hopes into existence. Maybe she was right. Maybe money couldn't be paid back once it was used to buy food that was eaten. 

They feasted. 

There was something healing about eating fried chicken. It was hot and savoury and crunchy and Yuri was restored by it. It felt like she'd been on stage hours ago but the heat and the lights were distant from this moment where she could feel herself relax like any kid her age wanted to. 

Speaking of kids her age, Yuri took a moment to watch Minjoo chewing diligently. 

Minjoo caught Yuri’s eye and smiled shyly. She dipped her head and held her hand over her mouth as the last slice of radish disappeared between her lips. She said, "Thank you."

But there was no need for that. 

"You must be starving. I know that every time I play it burns up all the food inside me. I assumed it's all the same for the others too,” Yuri explained. Getting food after playing a show was only natural after using up so much energy. They needed a way to replenish their energy and ease the drop after all the adrenaline ran out. 

“Thank you for inviting me with you.”

“Eunbi made us. But I wish I had seen you before to invite you." Yuri cringed at her own words but she'd said them even if it wasn't quite what she intended to say to keep Minjoo smiling. But Minjoo’s expression didn't falter. 

"It's better like this," Minjoo said. "I feel like I have to win you over so you really regret not knowing me before."

There wasn't a grain of hurt in Minjoo’s voice as far as Yuri could tell but she still felt like she could have done better and taken more notice of the girl who she'd seen looking lost backstage.

Yuri didn't like having a regret settle over her the way this had. She was doused in it and the viscous feeling dragging her thoughts to what she could have done better in the past slowed her too much in the present. Hyewon easily swooped a chicken wing from beneath Yuri’s outreached hand. Yuri was being hindered too much. She needed to make up for it even if it meant being the sort of honest she wasn't yet ready to confront. 

"I want to hear your original song," Yuri said. 

Minjoo chewed faster on her current mouthful and frowned at Yuri when she eventually managed to swallow it down. "I meant you'd regret not knowing me as a person. That sounds silly now. Don't regret anything, I've changed my mind."

Chaewon snickered but averted her eyes as though she could pretend to be as engrossed in decimating the dwindling chicken supplies as Hyewon and Yena were. Minjoo’s cheeks pinked. 

"You've already won me over," Yuri said. Once, a while back, Yena had spent the day doing impressions of Yuri and said that things sounded cooler the way Yuri spoke. Yuri wanted to feel as flippant as she sounded. She was in a band with fans and merch and a van (as Minjoo had pointed out) so Yuri could say cool things without being embarrassed. Too much. "You've won me over as a friend and a fan so you should play one of your songs for me."

Minjoo tried to hide her smile behind her hand but there was no point in it. Yuri wanted to see her smile (because she thought Yuri was cool, or she thought Yuri was charismatic, or she was just happy to be sitting beside Yuri). She pondered for a moment and glanced at the other girls around the table. Chaewon smiled at her but Yena and Hyewon both looked equally busy not looking at anyone. So Minjoo’s eyes ended up back at Yuri. She tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded with her lips pressed together. The smile that seeped out of her face in the following seconds was nervous, involuntary, but Yuri catalogued it all the same. 

"Alright. If we're friends I will play you a song."

It was all the promise Yuri needed to want to keep the night going. She had school tomorrow but there were so many other things worth doing which were still possibilities at this point. 

Yuri needed to make sure they really were friends because she wanted to hear that song. 

"Hyewon," Yuri said loudly enough to stir Hyewon from her food focus. "Shouldn't we go somewhere after this? Is there any money left?" 

Hyewon gazed around at the debris on the table as though it was easy enough to calculate if they had any remaining funds. She shrugged, exchanged a look with Yena, and said, "Pudding. We need to find a dessert shop."

"Do you like sweet things?" Chaewon asked Minjoo. There was a moment of consideration before the reply. 

"I love sweet things."

It was enough to have the five of them be quick about sweeping bones and napkins onto a tray to tip into the bin before leaving. Minjoo was wedged into the front seat of the van between Yena and Hyewon whilst Yuri and Chaewon were shoved into the back to somehow pretend to be comfortable between all of their equipment. Any sharp turn in the road had mic stands clattering on top of them. It's a lot to handle when the results of The JoYuriz' most recent studio sessions were blasting out of the van's speakers loud enough to shatter any eardrums. 

"Do you think we've managed not to scare Minjoo off for life?" Chaewon shouted over the hundred decibels of unmastered music. She pushed the bass drum away from her with her feet and just barely managed not to fall into Yuri as the van made yet another poorly planned turn. 

"Maybe she'll forget the whole night happened," Yuri suggested. She saw Minjoo’s guitar case sliding against the wall of the van and she couldn't help but congratulate her own reflexes for being sensitive enough to catch it and hold it securely. 

Hyewon's hand slapped the top of Yuri’s head over the back of the seat and it worked well enough to get attention from both Yuri and Chaewon. 

"I really like this song!" Hyewon yelled. "What is it called?" 

"You should name it," Chaewon shouted back through cupped hands. 

Hyewon frowned and peered over the back of the seat for almost a full minute until Yena hit the brakes so hard that every passenger jolted until something solid put a stop to their velocity. For Yuri it was Chaewon's head. For Hyewon it was the passenger window so she shooed Minjoo into a cower so she could adequately flick Yena's forehead. 

Yuri kept quiet as she rubbed her head where it had collided with Chaewon's. She wasn't too sure about the song Hyewon claimed to like. She had worked on it for a while but there was something missing, no matter how much she added and rearranged the midi tracks. It was meant to be an upbeat ode to an observed romance but it just didn't make sense. It wasn't worth a name to Yuri but it was alright if the others wanted a name for a song that would be nothing more than a set list filler. 

The JoYuriz (and friends) made it to the dessert shop in one piece and Yena parked the van at the roadside. Hyewon slid the side door of the van open and the dingy darkness was a much less disappointing place to sit. The whole street looked almost festive with the bright shopfronts blinking into the night from between the shops which were shut up hours before. 

There were three dessert shops on this street alone and even though the one with the sleek black sign and pure white neon lights was full it didn't mean it was the venue of choice for The JoYuriz. They didn't need tall leather booths and chandeliers. Yellow lights and fold-down tables were more than enough comfort. Also the desserts were cheaper and larger and Hyewon was the one to discover it. It was pure kindness that she shared intel as good as this with the group who put her job at risk on an almost weekly basis. 

"Hold my hand," Hyewon said. Chaewon grasped her hand tightly and used it to help her step down from the van lightly. 

Yuri wasn't about to do the same. It probably wasn't an instruction. She got out of the van on her own and Hyewon shut the door behind her. 

"What do you mean?" 

"The song," Hyewon said. 

"Do you know what the song was about?" Yuri asked. Just to make sure. She hadn't hidden the meaning and had barely stopped herself from naming the subjects of her song. She'd never asked permission but it hadn't felt like she had to when it was just the three JoYuriz hearing it. 

"I know," Hyewon said. "I like it. There isn't much of a hook but It makes everything sound sweet and easy."

Hyewon was pretty - simple in some of her desires and innocent in many others - and she deserved a sweet and easy life. 

"I'll ask Yena what she thinks," Yuri said. Hyewon paused before she nodded and fell into step with Yuri like they'd been talking about nothing at all. 

"You do that," she agreed. 

Yuri wondered for a moment whether Hyewon and Yena had spoken much about how sweet and easy things should be. They were something of a mystery to Yuri because she could never be sure she was reading their interactions as she should. The delicate dance of finding excuses to spend time together with friends was well trodden so the grooves of the usual pleasantries were worn into the folds of their minds but Yena never mentioned more than what Yuri and Chaewon saw. For all they knew there was nothing more than that and Yuri could only misinterpret it to write a love song about the things she saw seeing as she wasn't experiencing much of it herself. There wasn't much sweet and easy for Yuri, not even anything blasted so far to distortion as the motif that played Yena and Hyewon so well. 

Yuri's ears were still ringing from sitting in the van but seeing Minjoo and Chaewon pointing out interesting ice cream flavours through the glass display cabinet had Yuri wanting sweet and easy too. 

Yena reached Minjoo and Chaewon before Yuri and Hyewon did. 

"What is this? Are you trying to trick a poor innocent girl into joining your mint choco cult?" Yena asked suspiciously. She tugged at Minjoo’s arm and beckoned Hyewon over to assist. "Help me to save her. She has so much to live for."

"I only asked!" Chaewon protested as she reached to grab Minjoo’s other arm. 

Minjoo looked like she really might break in half and Yuri knew the only thing for it was to hold Minjoo together and yell at the two teams to leave her alone. They relented but perhaps only because Chaeyeon behind the counter threatened loudly to ban them all so Hyewon slapped her hand over Yuri’s mouth. 

"We didn't ask before," Chaewon pondered when they were successfully in possession of a giant sundae they split between the five of them at a table where Yuri was shivering from the draught. "Minjoo, what time do you need to be back at home?" 

Minjoo looked surprised at the question and took her phone out of her pocket to frown at the display. "My parents haven't mentioned it. I don't know. They just messaged me good luck."

"But isn't it a school night?" Yena asked as she pointed an accusatory finger at Yuri. Before any attempts at defense could be made Yena shifted the accusation to Hyewon who was sitting right beside her. "How could you book support acts who are tiny school-aged children?" 

Hyewon pushed Yena's hand out of her face and carefully scooped an ambitious spoonful of ice cream and toppings. "The licence only requires children are out before ten o'clock. We never forced you to play."

"There's no need to sulk and call me a child," Yena huffed. 

"You called yourself a child," Hyewon said sagely before she channelled all her focus into important matters like creating a gorge in the abundant ice cream. Yena stuck her tongue out in defiance. Perfectly childish. Minjoo giggled. 

"Oh no," Chaewon stage-whispered, "You'll encourage her!" 

"I'm a mature adult," Yena said, perfectly prim as she straightened her posture and lifted her littlest finger from it's grip on her spoon. "I don't need any encouragement at all."

"I think that's what we're all afraid of," Chaewon pointed out. She was right though. Yuri had already been tarred with the same brush as Yena (and it really didn't help that Yena claimed to be the Jo Yuri of The JoYuriz) but Minjoo was shiny and new, a crystal of the sharpest clarity not yet marked by dull surroundings. People were going to start rolling their eyes at Minjoo and threatening to ban her from cheap restaurants too. Chaeyeon tended to be joking when she said things like that but even her patience wasn't infinite. 

But Yuri still decided to bother Chaeyeon when she excused herself from the table with some vague words about the toilet. 

Heaven fluttered down upon Yuri in the form of Chaeyeon's smile. This might even have been better than the ice cream. 

"What can I do for you?" Chaeyeon asked as she leaned over the counter to smile more closely at Yuri. 

"Talk to me, please," Yuri said. 

Chaeyeon's smile softened. Yuri didn't know Chaeyeon particularly well because she was more afraid than the others about accidentally getting banned but Chaeyeon was always incredibly kind. She asked Yuri how she was and actually listened. Yuri wanted to ask Chaeyeon about herself but she never volunteered information when Yuri was around. And this time seemed no different. 

"What about your new friend. Shouldn't you be talking to her?" 

Yuri followed Chaeyeon's subtle pointing to see Minjoo peering over at them. Caught, she smiled and looked away. Chaewon said something to her and offered a spearmint spoonful. 

"I think she wants to talk to you," Chaeyeon said, like she was sharing a secret. Yuri turned back to look at Chaeyeon. She couldn't smile or quite as easily. 

"What do I say to her?" 

Chaeyeon straightened up and laughed. Not loudly enough to embarrass Yuri but loud enough to startle her out of a handful of worries. "Say whatever you want. What do you normally say to girls?" 

Stupid things. Yuri mostly said stupid things to girls because she was a stupid girl. She usually mumbled at girls to borrow pencils from them at school, or she apologised for bumping into them because she doesn't look where she's going after staying up all night, but never anything that she'd really want to say to Minjoo. Minjoo didn't look like she was carrying a pencil and Yuri was careful about where she was going around a girl like her. 

"What do you say to girls?" Yuri asked. 

Chaeyeon looked thoughtful. "I ask them about themselves. If I want an excuse to talk to someone but I didn't know what to say I'd ask them things to get them talking. What do you want to know about your new friend?" 

"Do you think she'd want to be my friend?" 

Chaeyeon grinned and leaned over to pat Yuri's shoulder firmly. "Who wouldn't want to be friends with you?" 

Lots of people, but Minjoo wasn't like a lot of the people who skated over conversations and made excuses to get away from Yuri because she was awful conversation half-asleep. Chaeyeon wasn't saying it to her to prod a sore spot and Yuri was glad to hear encouragement. 

"I'll ask her about herself," Yuri said, determined. 

"Who is that?" Minjoo asked. Yuri froze. She could have done with a warning from Chaeyeon but the glint in her eyes was playful enough to have been a trick. Maybe Minjoo heard too much or maybe she heard nothing at all. Either way she fidgeted at the counter. "Sorry. That was rude of me. I just came over because I thought you were getting something else and I wanted to see what you liked. Oh, that sounds weird out loud too."

"It doesn't sound weird," Yuri said quickly. Minjoo brightened up and she always deserved to look cheered like this. "Did you get sick of the ice cream?" 

"I didn't really get a chance to get near it all. Except for the mint. I don't really like it that much."

Minjoo’s wrinkled nose was cute and even this seemed like enough. Yuri needed to be the cool and confident girl she always pretended she was when she stood on stage. 

"Chaeyeon, what would you recommend to share. To go."

Chaeyeon raised her eyebrows knowingly and was kind enough not to mention the girls who wouldn't quite get left behind. "Sharing might be a challenge but the waffles are especially good."

Yuri believed that. Even though she wasn't as close as could be with Chaeyeon, Yuri trusted her. Especially for a matter like this. 

"I wonder what the waffle will be like," Minjoo said as she pressed herself against the sneezeguard to peer through the glass at what Chaeyeon was doing. 

"It will be good," Yuri said. "Hyewon has tried every dessert on this street and this place is the best. Yena says Hyewon is an expert."

Minjoo peered up at Yuri and smiled. "What are you an expert in?" 

Probably nothing. But Yuri wanted to be an expert in something. Someone. She wanted to know everything and she wanted to be present to witness all the new things that there were to learn as they became fact. 

But that was too honest for a first meeting. 

"Music," Yuri said. "I like music." 

Minjoo straightened up. She looked down at Yuri with warmth in her eyes. "Me too. I like music too."

"I will talk to Yena about this later," Chaeyeon said as she presented the waffle. It wasn't what Yuri expected. It was wrapped into a cone around generous scoops of ice cream and slices of strawberries. 

Minjoo took the waffle, fingers crinkling the paper and napkins wrapped around it as she smiled over the counter at Chaeyeon. Though Yuri was concerned with what it was that Chaeyeon would discuss with Yena at all. 

It wasn't until they were outside the dessert shop and Minjoo had nibbled at the edge of the waffle that Yuri realised. The same thought occurred to Minjoo at the same time. 

"Will Yena be alright to pay for this? Remind me to give her some money for this and the petrol."

Yuri nodded. But she had no intention of reminding Minjoo to pay up. 

"What music will you teach me about, Expert," Minjoo asked. 

Yuri pointed out the nearest bus stop. "Wait there."

Yuri hurried over to the van. It was unlocked which was unwise on a street like this. Even the smell wouldn't deter an opportunist. And it wouldn't deter Yuri either as she searched through her bag, squashed under miscellaneous instruments, for her phone. She couldn't lock the van without keys so she hoped all the things The JoYuriz had (sans Yuri's phone and earphones) would be as safe as they had been until now. 

"You should have some too," Minjoo offered once Yuri returned. Yuri hesitated but she leaned closer to take a bite. The sweetness was in the tart of the strawberries and the accidental sucre of the ice cream which lathed over the light spring of the waffle and the bitter whip of the compressed cream. She met Minjoo’s eyes and wondered what sort of mess she had made of herself. 

Yuri wiped at her mouth and sat beside Minjoo at the bus stop. 

Yuri scrolled through her phone and wondered what would be the best to show Minjoo. 

"Is it difficult to find a song?" Minjoo asked. "Show me anything. Show me whatever feels like you."

That only made things harder. She wanted to show Minjoo parts of herself but there was too much to be ashamed of when a friend didn't like a song, more when the person was to be impressed. 

Yuri chose a song at random just to ease herself in. Minjoo immediately smiled behind the waffle. 

"You really are an expert," she said. She smiled and closed her eyes and nodded her head and tapped her toes to the music. 

Minjoo was beautiful. Minjoo was deserving of all the music in the world. But her voice was an aria like no other. 

"I haven't eaten ice cream like this before. Not out of a cake."

"Neither have I," Yuri admitted. "Maybe we can try a few more and become experts like Hyewon."

Minjoo chuckled. "That sounds like so much work. We're students. How could we find the time?" 

"I'd make time for you."

Minjoo inhaled sharply. And then she laughed. A harmony with a heart and Yuri was really awful. 

"Is that a promise? I'd like it very much."

Yuri didn't know what to say. She changed the song. 

"I like this one too."

Minjoo liked a lot, apparently. 

She liked going to school, and napping between classes, and the lunches served every second Tuesday, and taking walks after school, and writing in her journal, and learning new songs on her guitar. 

She also liked an accidental song. It was a demo by The JoYuriz and Yuri wasn't entirely happy with it. 

"Don't change it," Minjoo said as she stilled Yuri's hand with her own. Yuri withdrew her hand and squinted at the smear of ice cream growing tacky on her skin. Minjoo gasped and didn't do the best job of trying to wipe away the mess with her hands streaked with the melted ice cream. "I'm so sorry."

Minjoo did her best but Yuri wasn't too concerned. Her jacket did the job of wiping off both of their hands for the time being. 

By the time the song was done Minjoo was patting her shoulder in search of the earbud. She gave up and threw the mess of the waffle remains and used napkins into the bin at the side of the bus stop. She returned with a frown on her face. "I missed the song because I was silly. Can you play it again?" 

Minjoo was frowning. She really looked too worried for her own good, like she had anything to apologise for. She was cute. 

"I won't play it again," Yuri said. 

"But it was an accident! I made a mistake and got you messy! Let me hear the song again!" 

"I won't," Yuri said gravely. 

"Please, Yuri!" 

"You have to play a song for me first."

Yuri's voice was steady and perhaps that was the cause of the hesitation. But Minjoo’s frown dropped clean off her face and she smiled coyly. 

"Yuri, you're awful." Minjoo collapsed into the seat beside Yuri and buried her head into Yuri's shoulder. "Yuri, you scared me. That was a terrible trick."

"Don't you think I felt tricked? You still haven't played any songs for me."

Minjoo peered up at Yuri and smiled. "I don't have anything recorded. Not properly like you."

Yuri wasn't surprised. It had taken the three JoYuriz ages and ages to save up for their first studio session and they'd had to whiz through a few songs as quickly as possible to get them recorded in some way. The first session was messy and their nerves were clear through the recording as though the girls were in the soundproofed room and wondering if the engineer on the other side of the glass thought they were doing alright for novices. They hadn't been, and they had paid for more studio time with the money made from concerts which allowed them to lose their nerves. Yuri couldn't imagine Minjoo standing behind the glass alone with such concerns. Not when she had nothing to her name aside from a first performance as a support act for a band who wouldn't play a venue larger than The Highlight. 

"Let's get your guitar," Yuri said. 

"Do you really want to hear anything?" 

Yuri sighed. "If you really don't want to play me anything, you don't have to. I suppose. But I hoped I might have more right to hear your songs than some snobs who wouldn't be impressed because you don't have tattoos and a beard."

Minjoo pouted and lightly pressed her fist to Yuri's shoulder. 

"Oh. I meant, rights as a fellow musician, by the way. Just so you know."

"You have more rights than that," Minjoo said, a wistful winding of a meandering mirth. "You're a friend at the very least. The best friend."

They didn't know each other, not like best friends, but Minjoo took Yuri's hand and led her over to Yena's van. 

Yuri opened the sliding door at the side of the van, braved the trip inside, and rescued Minjoo’s guitar from the mess. Minjoo smiled as she embraced her guitar and she sat with Yuri on the ledge at the mouth of the van. 

Carefully, Minjoo undressed her guitar and held it across her lap. Her hands trembled as she tuned up the guitar. Yuri didn't like to see that, not even in the dim of the unspeakable night where illumination came from shopfronts and streetlights. 

Yuri looked away. 

"I don't know if I'd be nervous around the girl I covered in ice cream," Yuri said, thinking aloud though she knew she definitely still would be 

The strum of stings caught Yuri’s gaze and brought it back to Minjoo. There was focus in Minjoo’s eyes which pushed away the nervous caution for just a moment. She dipped her gaze and began to play. 

Minjoo’s voice was clean, if quiet, and her fingers stumbled over frets and she muddled enough chords for Yuri to tell without knowing the song. But the song was sweet. It was easy to listen to and Yuri wanted to hear more and more. The only improvement would have been the song being played for her sole audience but the passers by who lingered with cheers or jeers couldn't be helped at the roadside. 

Minjoo stopped playing, mid-phrase. She rolled her lips and her shoulders hunched. 

"Is that the one you played at The Highlight?" 

Minjoo shook her head. "It's unfinished. But I sort of wanted you to hear it."

"Play wonderwall!" A voice called from down the road. Minjoo exhaled through her nose and lay her guitar flat on her lap. 

"Would you ever want to write with someone? Or hear some input?" Yuri asked. 

Minjoo’s eyes widened but they crinkled in a smile. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. "Would you really want to? With me?" 

Yuri shrugged. "You're cool. 

Minjoo giggled. "You too. You're cool."

It was the best thing Yuri had ever heard. To be cool. For a cute girl to call her cool. For a cute girl with a gorgeous smile who can play guitar to call her cool. Minjoo ticked a lot of boxes. She was, in a word, perfect. 

"We should get together and work on something," Yuri said. She opened the midi keyboard app on her phone and tapped out a few notes. "What do you want to do?Play something."

Minjoo whined. "I can't think, you aren't giving me enough time. It's late and we have to go to school tomorrow." Minjoo paused. She glanced at Yuri. "But if we go to school tomorrow you won't forget about me, right?" 

Yuri frowned. "How could I? Give me your number."

Minjoo typed her number into Yuri's phone and handed it over. Yuri called the number and Minjoo withdrew her phone from her pocket so they could wait for it to ring. "Oh. Did I put the number in wrong?" Minjoo asked right before the screen illuminated. She smiled relieved and Yuri hung up. 

"When you have an idea you should call me," Yuri said. Her voice sounded low and serious and she wondered just how cool Minjoo might have thought she was. "Oh. But even if you don't have an idea you should call me. Maybe randomly spending time together might give us ideas."

"Could I call you tomorrow?" Minjoo asked, a smile tensing the corners of her lips. "Maybe if our schools finish at the same time we could try to start… brainstorming."

There was nothing Yuri wanted more than that phone call. "Call me. Please."

Minjoo smiled and ducked her head. "I'll call you." 

It was a promise and it didn't even matter that Yena was yelling about the hooligans who had broken into her dearest brother's van. 


End file.
